How many times has one heard the phrase, “change is inevitable?” Yet when it comes to the climate change conversation, it’s an inevitability some find difficult to discuss, while others grieve over the knowledge of its in-motion process, and others refuse to embrace it at all. The documentary Voices of the Valley, is a Southern Oregon Climate Action Now (SOCAN) project started in 2016 to raise awareness and offer a medium for local conversation on the topic. Opening with a powerful call to action to address environmental issues, the narrator asks: “Climate change is happening. Is human change happening too?”

“The good thing about Climate Change is that it encourages us to do the things we should already be doing.” Wise words from high school student, Lily Ordway — a statement that essentially set the tone for the March 9 Climate Change Youth Challenge at Ashland’s Rogue Valley Unitarian Universalist Fellowship. Three Ashland High School students and three adult guest speakers offered their thoughts, while the Peace Choir performed several powerful original songs.

Dr. Alan Journet believes Curry and Del Norte county residents need to know about the local ramifications of climate change and will present data reflecting that at a meeting in Brookings next month.

Journet and Kathy Conway are co-founders of Medford-based Southern Oregon Climate Action Now (SOCAN), a nonprofit that works to combat climate change at the local level. The organization is also forming a local chapter for coastal residents.

About 350 Ashland High School students Friday joined a global strike for climate change action, marching a mile in a 100-yard-long line, making impromptu speeches at the downtown Plaza and waving signs that read, “Your mistake is my future,” “If you can’t act like adults, we will” and “Why am I studying for a future I won’t have?”

How many times has one heard the phrase, “change is inevitable?” Yet when it comes to the climate change conversation, it’s an inevitability some find difficult to discuss, while others grieve over the knowledge of its in-motion process, and others refuse to embrace it at all. The documentary Voices of the Valley, is a Southern Oregon Climate Action Now (SOCAN) project started in 2016 to raise awareness and offer a medium for local conversation on the topic. Opening with a powerful call to action to address environmental issues, the narrator asks: “Climate change is happening. Is human change happening too?”

A misleading graph purporting to show that past changes in Greenland’s temperatures dwarf modern climate change has been circling the internet since at least 2010.

Based on an early Greenland ice core record produced back in 1997, versions of the graph have, variously, mislabeled the x-axis, excluded the modern observational temperature record and conflated a single location in Greenland with the whole world.

An Open Letter from Scientists and Experts Supporting a Clean Energy Transition in Oregon

The challenges posed by fossil fuel-induced climate change are as daunting and demanding as any we’ve ever faced. That’s why these 70 Oregon-based scientists and experts are urging the state’s lawmakers to take strong climate action this year.

The Clean Energy Jobs bill (HB 2020) will overcome those challenges. It will reduce global warming pollution across the state, invest in clean energy, and protect our communities from the impacts of climate change.

Dear Governor Brown and Oregon state legislators:
As Oregon scientists, researchers, and economists, we are deeply concerned that climate change compromises the quality of life of all Oregonians and threatens our state’s—and planet’s—future. We need your leadership now more than ever to reduce the risks of a dangerously warming climate.

Scientists love a good mystery. But it’s more fun when the future of humanity isn’t at stake.

This enigma involves methane, a potent greenhouse gas. Twenty years ago, the level of methane in the atmosphere stopped increasing, giving humanity a bit of a break when it came to slowing climate change. But the concentration started rising again in 2007—and it’s been picking up the pace over the last four years, according to new research.

Scientists have been looking at best, middling and worst case scenarios for anthropogenic climate change for decades. For instance, Stephen Schneider himself took a turn back in 2009. And others have postulated both far more rosy and far more catastrophic possibilities as well (with somewhat variable evidentiary bases).